


Bullies Are Overestimated

by Rod



Series: Harry Potter and the Teenage Spy [4]
Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24396220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rod/pseuds/Rod
Summary: Alex Rider is a spy, not a soldier.  What can he do at the Battle of Hogwarts?
Series: Harry Potter and the Teenage Spy [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/273162
Comments: 20
Kudos: 135





	1. Chapter 1

Alex Rider shifted in his nest of junk until he was comfortable, then tried not to be distracted by all the odd stuff around him. Harry, Ron and Hermione were relying on him to prevent anyone from catching them unawares, and he wasn't about to let them down.

Things had moved fast since their wild ride on the dragon. The others had led him into these ruins which had turned out to be a magically disguised village, had escaped from the bad guys yet again into a pub straight out of the Middle Ages, and finally led him through an honest-to-God secret passage hidden behind a painting into the castle that housed their school. Which was also disguised as a ruin, which had been really disorienting until someone had remembered to fix what Alex could see.

They were only supposed to be there for a quick smash and grab, collecting and destroying the last but one object that Voldemort had stuffed a piece of his soul in. Needless to say that plan had lasted about five minutes until Harry had been spotted. After that, suddenly half the students were leading an armed insurrection and the school was under siege by the bad guys. Alex loved the place already.

It had taken forever for Alex to get a radio message out through all the magical interference. Theoretically K-Unit were his backup, but they had to get all the way up to Scotland and get through the disguise spells. Alex wasn't betting that they would make it before dawn, but at least they now knew where he was. While he had been doing that, Harry had apparently been chasing down ghosts. Whatever, Harry was now convinced that the diadem they were looking for was somewhere in this huge junk room.

With all three of the trio looking for this magical tiara, Alex reckoned he was best off watching their backs. It hadn't escaped his attention that some of the students were not thrilled to have Harry back among them. Chances were someone would try to curry favour with Voldemort by delivering Harry to him. Plus, it was a junk room. There was no way Alex wasn't going to do some rummaging of his own, out of sight of the others. Smithers would never forgive him if he didn't bring back something for him to play with.

First things first, though. It only took Alex a couple of minutes to rig some alarms and a little surprise for unwelcome visitors. It wouldn't even slow down anyone competent, but Alex reckoned that anyone coming after them right then was more likely to be Harry's age. Alex had a fourteen year old's disdain for older kids, and it didn't sound like the Junior Death Eaters were due even that much respect.

Alex was marvelling over why anyone would want an apparently bottomless elephant's foot umbrella stand, never mind keep over a dozen empty sherry bottles in it, when someone tripped the first of his alarms. The small pile of junk collapsing wasn't going to hurt anyone, but that wasn't the point.

"Careful, you lummox," Alex heard someone hiss. He rolled his eyes. If those kids thought they were being the least bit subtle, they were sadly mistaken. Harry had probably heard that, however far into the room he was. They were even moving in the direction of the trap Alex had laid.

Silently, Alex slipped into the hiding place he had prepared and pulled out his phone. He had a good view of three boys as they stepped cautiously between the piles of junk. The two in front were bruisers, the third one a tall, angular blond, all wearing green and grey ties. Probably Malfoy and his cronies, given what Alex had gathered from Ron's rants.

Just a little further, Alex thought. He plugged the wires he had left behind into his phone's headphone socket and grabbed hold of a trailing piece of string. Come on, two more steps. One more. Now.

Alex pulled the string. That yanked the support out from under a precariously balanced urn, and in short order a length of copper chain was tangling up the bruisers. It would only hold them up for a couple of seconds, but that was all the time Alex needed to stab the button on his phone. The two goons screamed as the phone's grossly overpowered battery discharged through them, a crude but effective taser. Alex cheered mentally as they fell to the floor bonelessly. Then the junk pile collapsed under him.

Alex tumbled as best he could on the shifting surface. He still ended up sprawled on his face at Malfoy's feet, pretty much exactly not where he wanted to be. Malfoy's wand was trained on him before he even looked up.

"What did you do to them?" the boy shouted, giving up all pretence of stealth. He practically jumped away from Alex.

"Shocked them unconscious," Alex replied easily. "Don't worry, they'll be fine." Probably; Smithers had warned him not to try shocking anyone with a heart condition. Alex on the other hand was very much in trouble. Sprawled as he was he couldn't get to his feet quickly, and Malfoy was actually being sensible and hanging back. He would be able to get a spell off before Alex could knock him down. Alex needed to lure him closer.

"Who are you?" Malfoy demanded. "You don't go to Hogwarts, so how did you get here?"

Alex briefly considered pretending to be from one of the European magical schools he had heard mentioned. Unfortunately Malfoy almost certainly knew more about them than he did. "I'm Alex," he said. "I came with Harry and his friends."

"Never heard of you," Malfoy declared. He looked desperate, Alex thought.

"I'm not surprised," Alex told him. "I've heard plenty about you, though. Harry never stops complaining. Although..." He paused, looking at Malfoy consideringly. Maybe he could use that desperation. "He did say you didn't identify him when they were captured."

Malfoy hesitated. "I wasn't sure it was him," he insisted. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Alex nodded slowly. "It can't be much fun having someone like Voldemort taking over your family home," he said.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Malfoy said hotly. He was scared, Alex was sure of it. Anyone would be, having a vindictive evil mastermind breathing down their neck all the time. Malfoy already wasn't enjoying living under his Dark Lord's rule. If Alex could just find the right thing to say...

"When my uncle died, the only person left to take care of me was my housekeeper, Jack," he said evenly. "The thing is, she's American. She needs a visa to stay in this country. The people who sent me here, they didn't say it outright but they made sure I knew they could stop her visa being renewed." He looked up at Malfoy with all the sincerity he could muster. "I know what it's like to be backed into a corner, to feel like you have no choice. And it's worse for you."

"W-what?" Malfoy asked shakily.

"I've never been ordered to kill."

Malfoy shook. His guard was completely down now, telling Alex clearer than words that Malfoy wanted out. Unfortunately before he could do anything about it, Ron hurried around the junk pile, wand raised. "Drop it, Malfoy," Ron commanded.

"Stay back," Malfoy shouted. "Stay back or I'll..." The panic was back in his eyes and his wand was pointed waveringly at Alex again. Alex could have screamed in frustration. Instead he waved Ron back, hoping he would get the hint and stop making things worse.

"The thing is," Alex said gently, "you do have a choice. Tonight in particular you have a choice. We all know this is going to be the end of it, one way or another. So who do you want to win?"

He shifted a little as he watched his words sink in, getting one foot under himself at last. He still looked harmless, but now he had a lot more options. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life under the rule of someone who's never going to stop making you scared?"

Malfoy closed his eyes. "N-no," he choked out. "But my family..."

"We can work something out," Alex said with entirely unjustified confidence. It was what Malfoy needed to hear. "I guess that means you either sit this out and hope for the best or help Harry. Or pretend to help Voldemort while really supporting Harry, but that's dangerous."

Ron snorted. "Sounds like something you'd do, Alex," he said. Malfoy tensed again.

"I'm not actually suicidal," Alex said, scowling at Ron. "How long do you think I'd last before someone noticed I don't do magic?"

"You're a squib?" Malfoy asked, shocked.

"He's a muggle," Ron said proudly.

Alex glared at him harder. "Yes, I'm a muggle," he said grumpily, practically daring Malfoy to make something of it. "We aren't completely helpless against magic, you know."

Malfoy drew himself up. "If you're so desperate you're resorting to muggles, Weasley," he began. As his eyes flicked over to Ron, Alex made his move. He surged up to where Malfoy had incautiously come within range and launched a lightning-fast nerve strike at the other boy's wand arm. Malfoy was woefully slow to react, as if he couldn't imagine someone manhandling him like that. Seconds later Alex scooped the falling wand out of the air and stepped back out of reach.

"MI6 didn't exactly give them a choice," he said nonchalantly, "at least not once they heard about the whole Dark Lord thing. Now, we were talking about your choices?"

"Like surrendering," Ron put in. Malfoy have him a glare composed of equal parts anger and shame. Alex frowned; Malfoy had so nearly come over to their side, but he was the type who would be too proud to do it like this. Alex was going to have to do something stupid.

"That's one option," he said seriously. "You have others." Mentally crossing his fingers, he handed Malfoy's wand back to him.

Ron made a choking noise, but Malfoy only had eyes for Alex. "Why?" Malfoy asked after a moment. He looked at his wand, then back to Alex. "You could have just taken me prisoner. It would have been the smart thing to do."

"If I wanted to back you into a different corner, yeah," Alex agreed. "I'd kind of like you to choose your corner, though. Of your own free will, at least as much as you can right now." He waved vaguely in Ron's direction; there was no point in pretending that Malfoy's choices weren't going to have consequences.

Malfoy stared at him, really stared. "Can Potter win?" he asked. It was almost a plea.

"I'm one stop closer right now," Harry said challengingly, appearing from around another junk pile. Hermione followed him, her wand out. She narrowed her eyes when she saw Malfoy.

"More to the point," Alex said softly, "do you want him to win?"

For a long moment nothing happened. Alex had to force himself to remain calm and keep his gaze level. After what felt like an eternity, Malfoy lowered his wand. "How can I help?" he asked Harry.

It was kind of funny the way Harry was completely wrong-footed by Malfoy actually switching sides, Alex decided. "Stick with us and see what happens," he said, slapping the older boy on the shoulder. "That's probably good enough for now, right?"

"Uh, right," Harry said, finding his voice. "At least until we know what's going on out there."

Well, come on then," Alex told them all cheerily. "We've got a Dark Lord to defeat."


	2. Chapter Two

In his fourteen years, Alex Rider had been involved in many fights. There had been far too many occasions when he had been in deadly danger, whether from bullets zipping around him or a whole variety of exotic death traps. He had never been in a war though, and he had never felt so powerless to change the outcome.

There had been bright moments in this battle. Sneaking up to Draco Malfoy's parents and telling them to follow him if they wanted to live was a memory he would treasure forever. But those moments were overwhelmed by all the darkness. All the children fighting and dying because too few adults would stand up to a monster. Even not being able to save Snape when the man was horribly poisoned and still literally pulling out memories Harry needed to know.

Harry was watching those memories now. When he had run out of the Great Hall at the sight of all the dead and injured, Alex had trailed along behind. Harry needed to be alone so Alex made sure to give him plenty of space, but there was no way he was going to risk Harry getting caught by any Death Eaters who had managed to hide in the chaos. By the time Alex reached what looked like the headmaster's office, Harry had his head in an elaborately carved stone basin from which a silvery glow was coming. The flask that had held Snape's memories was on the floor, empty.

Disturbing Harry while he was reliving someone else's memories seemed like a bad idea. Alex prowled around the office for a minute or two, but there wasn't anything there it looked safe to poke. Eventually he settled into a dark corner. If anyone came into the office, he was well hidden and well placed to get the drop on them.

It was several more minutes before Harry lifted his head from the basin and collapsed to the floor. Some instinct made Alex hold back. Harry needed to process what he'd seen, Alex reasoned. Crowding him now would be counterproductive. That didn't make him feel any better when Harry stood up and he saw the tears.

"So that's it, then," Harry said quietly. Before Alex could figure out what to say, Harry reached into his pocket, pulled out his invisibility cloak and disappeared.

In any other circumstances, that would have been cool. As it was, it took far too long for Alex's brain to kick back in gear. By the time he thought to call out to Harry, the older boy was gone. Now what, Alex asked himself. He didn't know what Harry was thinking or what he was going to do, but he hadn't looked good.

Well, Alex wasn't going to find him by guessing. The only place he was going to get answers was from the bowl full of memories.

Alex approached the basin cautiously. He hadn't seen Harry set the thing up. He wasn't even sure it would work at all for someone non-magical like him. There was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, Alex stuck his head into the basin.

And fell into Severus Snape's memories.

It was a confusing ride, and Alex didn't recognise most of the people he saw. Pretty much the only thing that he was certain of when he was expelled back into the real world was that there was a bit of Voldemort's soul stuck in Harry. If Voldemort was going to die, Harry had to die first.

It wasn't fair, Alex thought. It wasn't fair, but there was no getting round it. He had to let Harry march off to his death. Right now, Harry was heading into the forest to meet his fate and there was absolutely nothing Alex could do about it. He couldn't even be there for Harry; no one could help him at all.

"Wait, what am I _thinking?_ " Alex asked out loud. "He needs backup!"

"My, what a remarkable young man you are."

Alex whirled, ready to defend himself, but there was no one else in the room. Even the paintings were empty aside from one of Harry's old headmaster.

"And a muggle too, by all accounts," the painting said thoughtfully. "Quite remarkable."

Alex narrowed his eyes. From what he'd seen, Albus Dumbledore was every bit as manipulative as Alan Blunt. "What did you do?" he asked suspiciously.

Dumbledore spread his hands innocently. "I am merely a painting, my boy," he said genially. "I can only offer advice."

Even if Alex had been prepared to believe that, something had been skewing his thinking earlier. "Then the real Dumbledore did something," he said. "Something to make people leave Harry on his own."

"Quite, quite remarkable," the painting said. "Alas, as you have seen there are no other options. If Voldemort is to die, Harry cannot avoid death himself. I could not risk Severus or anyone else holding this office attempting to persuade him otherwise."

"So you sent him off to die alone," Alex said disgustedly.

"Would you prefer I had sent Miss Granger and Mr Weasley to their deaths too?" the painting asked, not unkindly. "Harry at least has the option of returning."

"What?" Alex was stunned. Harry could come back to life? And he hadn't thought to mention it? Did he even know himself? "How do you figure that?" he asked glaring narrowly at Dumbledore.

"He has united the Deathly Hallows," the painting told him. "The cloak he inherited from his father, and the ring I bequeathed to him."

"But Voldemort has the wand," Alex pointed out. "He figured out that you had been using it before Harry did."

"The Elder Wand must be won by right of conquest," the painting said simply.

Alex frowned. "So it belongs to whoever defeated you," he thought out loud. "But Voldemort killed Snape."

"Severus was the one kind enough to release me from the slow decline of Voldemort's curse," Dumbledore said calmly, "but it was Draco Malfoy who disarmed me as I saw to Harry's safety. And it was Draco whom Harry defeated when he fought his way out of Malfoy Manor." He smiled at Alex.

Alex gaped. "You seriously planned on all that coming out right?" he demanded. "What if Voldemort had figured it out too? What if Harry hadn't disarmed Draco?"

"Calm yourself, my boy," the painting said. "The prophecy gave me the assurance that if I could simply arrange for it to be possible, it would happen. _Either must die at the hands of the other._ Voldemort must kill Harry, but in turn Harry must kill Voldemort."

Alex seriously wanted to slap the old man about the head. He could think of at least two occasions he could argue that Harry had already killed Voldemort, but that wasn't the worst of it. "Suppose you're right," he said. "Suppose Harry does come back to life. He'll still be surrounded by Death Eaters. What do you think is going to happen then?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just ran out of the office in the hope he could catch up with Harry. He didn't head the painting murmur, "I would say that prophecy has provided again."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried writing this with proper radio protocol, but it really didn't flow at all. Sorry about that; dramatic necessity beats purity.

Following Harry through the forest wasn't too hard in the end. Harry had been relying on his invisibility cloak, but he didn't know how to move in woodlands. Alex on the other hand had gone on a lot of camping trips when he was younger. His uncle had taught him how to track, how to spot the difference between a person and an animal passing through an area. Part of the spy training that Alex had never known he was receiving.

Alex had just found Harry's tracks at the edge of the Forbidden Forest when his radio crackled into life. "Calling Cub, calling Cub. This is K-Unit. Come in Cub."

"Cub here," Alex said happily. He hadn't been sure his radio was still working after all the magic it had been through. "Am I glad to hear you guys. Where are you?"

Whoever had the radio — Alex thought it was Wolf — rattled off a grid reference. Alex frowned. That put them on the far side of the forest, which at least meant the Death Eaters were unlikely to have noticed them arriving. It would take them forever to get to Hogwarts if they skirted the forest, but Alex didn't like the thought of directing his friends through such dangerous territory at night.

"Cub, this is Fox," came a new voice. "What's the situation?"

Alex rapidly filled him in on the state of the battle. "Voldemort's pulled back into the Forbidden Forest for now," he finished.

"Stay where you are," Fox said. "We'll zero in on your signal."

"No chance," Alex replied. "Harry's going to confront Voldemort on his own. I have to be there to get him out."

"Crazy kid," Fox grumbled. It wasn't clear whether he was talking about Alex or Harry. "Leave your radio on anyway, we'll find you in there."

"Don't," Alex said quickly. "This place isn't called the Forbidden Forest for nothing."

"Don't even think about switching your radio off," Fox said firmly. "We've got a fix on your current location now, we can follow you in anyway."

Alex grimaced. He could make life difficult for K-Unit, but at least one of them was bound to be a better tracker than he was. Thank God Harry had warned him what to expect here. "OK, but be careful," he said. "Be respectful of the centaurs, and if you see any spiders webs get the hell out of there."

"Centaurs," Wolf said flatly. "And what, spiders the size of dinner plates?"

"Those would be the babies," Alex said cheerily.

Progress through the pre-dawn gloom was slow. It took Alex longer than he would have liked to catch up with Harry. Too long; by the time he saw the guy, Harry was striding into the clearing where Voldemort and his followers had set up temporary camp. Alex hoped he had the invisibility cloak with him. He had an idea of how he could help, but Harry would need his cloak to make best use of it.

Alex crept closer, dropping into a commando crawl as he reached the edge of the clearing. The Death Eaters only had eyes for Harry, but there was no sense in taking chances. He had even made sure to turn down the volume on his radio despite having an earbud in. It was a good thing he had; as he settled into position, Fox's voice came softly into his ear.

"Cub, K-Unit," he said. "Nearing your position."

Alex couldn't help but start slightly in surprise. The movement didn't make much noise, but it was enough to make Voldemort's pet snake look up and taste the air curiously. Alex froze. His heart was beating so fast it seemed to him that Nagini must be able to hear it pounding away. Not sighing in relief as she lowered her head and resumed her scrutiny of Harry took every ounce of Alex's remaining willpower.

Alex didn't dare whisper into his radio. Fortunately he didn't need to. _I-N P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N_ he tapped out in Morse code. _N-O N-O-I-S-E_.

_S-I-T-R-E-P_ was the almost immediate response.

Alex concentrated on the scene in front of him, trying to boil it down to the essentials that K-Unit would need to know. _D E I-N C-L-E-A-R-I-N-G_ , he sent. _V-E-R-Y T-A-L-L M-A-N I-S H-O-S-T-A-G-E_. Hopefully that would be enough to stop anyone shooting Hagrid by mistake. _H A-P-A-R-T_.

_W-E H-A-V-E E-Y-E-S O-N_ , someone sent back. Alex felt relief wash over him. With K-Unit here, his plan to get Harry out was a lot more likely to succeed.

_W-A-I-T F-O-R S-M-O-K-E_ , he sent, and very quietly fished around in his pocket for the last of Smithers' toys. It looked like an ordinary £2 coin, but once Alex armed it by twisting the inner disc it became a smoke bomb. Smithers had assured him that despite its small size it would produce an immense amount of smoke. All Alex had to do was squeeze it and throw.

It took all of Alex's self-control not to throw the smoke bomb there and then. He hated that Dumbledore was right, that Harry had to die before Voldemort could, and only hoped that Dumbledore was right that Harry would come back too. It could only have been seconds before he heart the shout of " _Avada kedavra_ " and saw Harry fall as the sickly green light struck him, but it felt like an eternity. Even then Alex held back. He had no idea how long it would take Harry to come back to life, he couldn't risk wasting his only smoke bomb.

It wasn't until Voldemort ordered one of his minions forward and Alex saw Harry's hand twitch that he reacted. He squeezed and threw. The innocent-looking coin landed almost exactly where he had aimed for. Moments later thick white smoke billowed out, obscuring Harry in seconds. Death Eaters immediately started casting spells at the smoke, presumably trying to dispel its non-existent magic since none of them had any effect. "Go," Alex whispered into his radio. There was no chance anyone would hear him over the chaos.

Gunfire broke out from across the clearing. Several Death Eaters collapsed, but not before one of them was smart enough to raise a wind to start blowing the smoke away. Alex wasn't worried about that. He had already seen the smoke swirl as if something was moving through it. "Harry!" he hissed. "Over here!"

"Alex?" Alex watched the grass flatten as Harry moved, so he wasn't surprised when Harry appeared out of thin air next to him. Over the radio, Snake complained about Nagini being bulletproof. "What are you doing here?" Harry demanded.

"Thought you could do with a hand," Alex said. He smirked.

The gunfire stopped. "Guns stopped working, Cub," Fox said urgently, "and you have inbound giant snake."

"Pull back," Alex commanded. "Harry's—"

Before he could finish the report, Nagini burst through what was left of the smoke. Alex and Harry dived in opposite direction as Nagini charged them. Alex heard Voldemort's outraged shout of "Potter!" but by then he was running for his life. Nagini had decided to go after him, and he had no gadgets left to fight her with.

Alex threw himself behind a tree as Nagini lunged, missing him by inches. He needed something to fend the snake off with. A fallen branch would do, anything that would buy him time to come up with a plan. Or more likely, for help to arrive. Nagini turned with surprising speed for something so big, forcing Alex to move before he could find a makeshift spear. He barely had time to catch his breath before the same thing happened again and he had to run for new cover. This time his foot caught on a root and he fell.

He started rolling before he even hit the ground. Alex didn't dare stay still. Nagini would be on him in an instant, and that would be that. As he turned over, his questing hand fell on something it could grasp, something heavy enough for him to use. Rolling to his feet, Alex thrust forward blindly with his new-found weapon, hoping that the snake would instinctively rear back and give him an opportunity to get away.

Nagini screamed, and for a moment everything was still.

Alex looked in surprise at the sword in his hand. It had pierced Nagini in the eye and carried on through to the snake's brain, and Alex had barely felt a thing. Then Nagini shuddered and everything started moving again. Alex heard Voldemort's furious cry and Harry's warning shout over an incongruous thunder of hoofbeats, but all of his attention was on not getting crushed by the falling snake.

He didn't entirely succeed.

There was more shouting and screaming, but Alex was in too much pain to make much sense of it. He couldn't have done anything anyway, pinned down as he was by Nagini's corpse. His leg was broken, he was sure of that much. Maybe his hip too. He couldn't budge the snake. Even trying hurt so much he abandoned the idea immediately. All he could do was bite his lip and hang on to his mysterious sword.

It could only have been moments later that Harry's face appeared in his field of view. He looked worried. "Alex? Are you OK?"

Alex glared at him.

"OK, that was a stupid question. Hold still while I get Nagini off you."

"Not going anywhere," Alex gritted out as Harry waved his wand. He managed not to scream as the weight lifted off his leg. There was definitely something wrong with his hip, he thought.

"Better?" Harry asked.

Alex nodded. It wasn't technically a lie, he was in less pain. Just not much less. "Voldemort?" he asked.

"Dead," Harry reported. "Killed by his own curse _again_. You'd think he'd learn after the first time, but..." He sounded a bit hysterical, Alex thought. Not that Alex felt much better. "The Death Eaters scattered when the Centaurs and the House Elves joined your friends," Harry continued, "and... That's Griffindor's Sword!"

Alex looked at the sword he was still grasping. It did look very much like the one Harry had used to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes. "But that's in Hermione's bag," he protested.

Harry gave him a serious look. "Dumbledore always said that if a true Griffindor really needed the sword, it would find its way to them."

"So this is your fault," Alex grumbled.

"I was a bit busy with Voldemort," Harry disagreed. "It came to you, Alex, not me."

"Well I'd happily swap it for some painkillers right now," Alex told him. His leg was killing him.

"Oh, we can do better than that," Harry said. "Kreacher!"

"Kreacher is here, master," a strange little being said from way too close to Alex. It looked at him disdainfully. "What is Master Harry Potter wanting?"

"This is Alex," Harry explained. "He's badly hurt. I want you to take him to Hogwarts Infirmary as carefully as you can."

Kreacher's eyebrows rose. "Master Harry Potter is wanting Kreacher to take a muggle to the infirmary?" he asked.

"He helped defeat Voldemort. Alex killed Nagini," Harry pointed out.

Kreacher smiled broadly. It wasn't a pretty sight. "Kreacher will take the muggle that did such a service for the memory of brave Master Regulus," he said.

"Gently," Harry said sharply, but Kreacher had already grasped Alex by the shoulder. Whatever it was he did, it didn't feel the least bit gentle.

Alex blacked out from the pain.


	4. Chapter 4

When Alex awoke, he was lying in an old-fashioned bed with a brass bedstead that creaked horribly as he moved. He wasn't in nearly as much pain as before though, so he counted that a win.

"Back with us, Cub?" a familiar voice said loudly. Alex opened his eyes to see Fox smiling down at him. Alex gave him a suspicious look. A smiling Fox was not usually good news.

"What's happened?" he asked.

"Oh, just the usual recriminations when two young people run off to save the day without telling anyone else," Fox said pleasantly. "Some folks seem to be having trouble believing we were involved, never mind the centaurs and the little guys."

"House elves," Alex corrected. "What, do they think Harry took on Voldemort and his henchmen all on his own?"

"Nice try, but we are talking about why you didn't at least arrange for backup. You had a whole castle full of wizards to call on." Fox was still smiling, but he didn't sound impressed. Definitely not good news, Alex thought.

"I didn't have time to persuade them and they would have slowed me down in the forest," Alex said a little petulantly. He had saved Harry from a second death, that was the main thing. "I only just got there in time as it was. If you hadn't been there we would have just run away under Harry's cloak. Easy."

"You know snakes hunt mostly by scent, don't you? Being invisible wouldn't have helped much."

Alex shrugged, and immediately regretted it. "We'd have thought of something," he said, trying to conceal how much pain he had brought on himself.

"You'd have thought of —" Fox paused, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Cub, you nearly died!"

"I broke my leg," Alex protested, "and my hip—"

"You had a crushed pelvis," Fox broke in. "Without magic you would have needed serious reconstructive surgery before you could walk again. Even then the people here were worried about the complications killing you."

"Oh," was all Alex could find to say.

"Yeah, 'Oh'," Fox said pointedly. "You nearly died, and that's before we get onto the broken leg."

"Broken legs are easily mended," a prim English voice said sharply, "provided you stay off them for a couple of hours. Back to bed, Mr Daniels." Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, hove into view and fixed Fox with an uncompromising glare.

Fox tried briefly to out-glare the nurse. He failed dismally in Alex's view. "You broke your leg too?" he asked as Fox hopped back onto the neighbouring bed.

"A Death Eater caught me," Fox grumbled. "He underestimated the range of a thrown knife."

"What did I tell you about standing in the open?" came a new voice. Alex turned his head carefully to see Snake dropping into one of the overstuffed armchairs in the corner of the infirmary. He wasn't too surprised when Fox just rolled his eyes and didn't answer; Snake was a sniper by preference, and had very definite ideas about cover.

"I have found that telling students not to get injured never seems to keep them out of my infirmary," Madam Pomfrey said drily. She began fussing over Alex, waving her wand and muttering indistinctly. "The Skele-Grow is coming along nicely, dear," she said with satisfaction. "You should be fine by tomorrow morning. I'm sorry it's such a painful process."

"I've felt worse," Alex told her honestly.

"That's not reassuring," Harry said from the doorway. Ron and Hermione were behind him, grinning cheerily at Alex. They were holding hands, Alex noticed. He grinned back at them and waved.

"Seriously," Harry continued, "I had to have my arm bones regrown in second year when Lockhart accidentally turned them to rubber. It wasn't fun. If you've been hurt often enough that's no big deal..."

"How did you get hurt anyway?" Snake asked. "No one seemed to know."

Alex shot him a grateful look. "I didn't move fast enough," he said.

Snake raised an eyebrow at Harry. "Nagini fell on him," Harry translated.

"After I stabbed her in the eye," Alex objected, not liking the look on Snake's face.

"Behold the conquering hero," Snake declaimed, "felled by half a ton of dead snake."

"It wasn't funny," Fox snapped.

"You've got to admit, it kind of is," Ron said. Fox glowered at him.

"Anyway," Harry said heavily, "I just wanted to check how you were and suggest that all of you keep your heads down while you're here."

Snake raised an eyebrow again. "No one seemed bothered by us earlier," he said.

"No one who fought here cares," Harry agreed.

"Except Malfoy," Ron put in.

"But there are a lot of wizards and witches who would rather worry that muggles know about them than be happy that Voldemort's dead," Hermione explained. "Never mind that parents of muggleborn students are told about magic every year and nothing terrible has ever come of that." She sniffed. Ron looked like he might object, but wisely kept his mouth shut when she turned to him.

"Discovering that MI6 know is a bit different," Fox said thoughtfully, "and panicky people do stupid things."

"Add to that the Minister of Magic was one of the people the House Elves brought back in chains," Harry said. "A lot of things are changing and no one is is control. Anything could happen."

Alex grimaced in sympathy. From everything he'd heard, anyone in the Ministry known to the public was a Death Eater or one of their stooges. If the Wizarding World needed a public figure to give it direction right now, there was really only one choice. "You're going to have to take charge," he said.

Harry groaned. "I was really hoping you would have another solution," he said.

"Face it, Harry," Ron put in, "it's you or Lucius, and I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."

Alex thought about that for a moment. "Actually, having Draco on your side isn't a bad idea," he said.

Ron made a face. "He's a prat," he declared.

"But he knows all the pureblood families and how they think," Hermione countered. She didn't seem very enthusiastic about the idea, but she was at least considering it. "His testimony about how bad Voldemort really was could be very valuable."

Alex tuned out the discussion in favour of trying to relax and ignore the pain he was in. Voldemort was dead and Harry was alive, that was the main thing. Alex had helped save a lot of lives, something he could feel happy about. The wizarding world might be facing uncertain times, and Harry's job might not be done yet, but they didn't need Alex's brand of help any more. With any luck, they wouldn't need him for a very long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. This has been a fun ride, even if it wasn't a story I ever intended to write. Thanks go to Diane Castle for the original inspiration (her Teraverse story of Harry Potter and his spy school).
> 
> The rest of this story is politics, and I don't want to write it. Really.


End file.
